Adverse Drug Reactions (ADR’s) Reporting Barriers and Attitude among Pharmacists in Erbil, Kurdistan Region – Iraq

摘要

Background: There are known common adverse effects related to drugs that might lead to death. Pharmacovigilance systems are important for monitoring, safely using medicines, decreasing the number of adverse drug reactions (ADRs) and increasing awareness for reporting ADRs in health care systems. Aim: This study sought to investigate attitudes and barriers among Erbil pharmacists, mainly those working at hospitals and pharmacists in private pharmacy sectors about ADR reporting and the Pharmacovigilance system. Methods: A cross-sectional prospective pilot study was done using previously modified and developed selfadministered questionnaires during a one month period from 15 February to 15 March 2017. The data were analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences software (SPSS) version 20. Results: The majority of pharmacists (94%) said that reporting ADRs is a pharmacist’s duty, with drug safety monitoring being very important (90.9%). More than 90% of pharmacists believed that it is very important to report ADRs that lead to life-threatening situations and those that lead to congenital abnormality. However, a majority were not familiar with the Iraqi Pharmacovigilance system, had never reported any ADRs, reporting forms were not available and they had insufficient clinical knowledge to detect ADRs. Conclusions: Under-reporting was the major problem detected by the study. However, necessary steps should be taken to design intervention programmes to increase knowledge and awareness of pharmacists concerning the ADR reporting process.